With distaste, Harriet reflected upon how life had beaten down the adults she knew, every single grown-up. Something strangled them as they grew older, made them doubt their own powers-laziness? Habit? Their grip slackened; they stopped fighting and resigned themselves to what happened. “That’s Life.” That’s what they all said. “That’s Life, Harriet, that’s just how it is, you’ll see.”
So…After settling my own down and rereading the chapter, I would like to give my full feedback on it.
Overall, I would give the chapter itself 8.5/10. Personally, it wasn’t the best chapter of the entire manga, because I would like to have a bit more answers to some questions, but it will definitely stay in my heart as one of the most emotional chapters.
As for the manga itself, I can give my full 10/10, because even though I couldn’t enjoy the story from the very beginning, it greatly influenced on my views on life, wars and people. Attack on Titan gave me a rollercoaster of emotions from ugly crying and praying for every character to hysterically laughing at some occasional jokes and situations.
I think this ending wasn’t’t perfect or ideal, because the variation of people’s wants in our fandom is astonishing and if one ending would be satisfying for some, it also would be unsatisfying for others. So I like the neutrality and ambiguity of this ending, because in my opinion, it gives freedom for readers’ imagination, and doesn’t necessarily dictates whose views were correct and whose not.
Other than that, people needs to understand that what characters were fighting for was a change. As soldiers, they wanted to liberate the humanity from walls and titans and many sacrificed their lives for that goal. As the alliance, they wanted to stop Eren from going further and, again, they wanted a change. They wanted this situation to change and stop.
So now let me move on to the separate parts of this chapter.
Armin and Eren’s talk.
This part of the chapter was truly beautiful. I loved how we could get a chance to see the talk between Armin and Eren for the last time (even as bitter it sounds like). It truly showed that at the end of the day…they are still 19 y/o boys who once shared a common dream of seeing the world together. The fate was cruel on them too and their ways got separated, but even like this…they still remained close to each other. Armin was one of few people who understood Eren and has never really turned his back on him. He knew that everything Eren said to them back in time were nothing but plain lies. He knew that Eren is trying to protect them and he is on their side. Armin, too, was besides Eren and believed that he is still a human being even if he was against rumbling.
I saw some people being…confused about Armin thanking Eren for becoming a mass murderer for their sake, but the thing is…was Armin happy about Eren becoming a mass murderer? No, he sincerely wanted to stop him. But as a person, Armin searches for the meaning and reason behind people’s actions. He knew that Eren is somehow on their side, but he couldn’t comprehend why Eren is doing this.
The main point is that…Eren himself can’t quite point out why he is doing this. His personal goal to achieve “freedom” was mixed with his urges to protect his friends, the burden of the future he saw and circumstances that he couldn’t escape. Eren always chased his idealized concept of freedom that practically can’t exist. His “freedom” was absolute, boundless and childish. It was simply something that Eren himself hasn’t experienced, but yet wanted so bad.
But the tragedy of Eren’s character isn’t his death, but simply that he neglected his own happiness and gave his goal more value than anything he could have in life. He wanted to be alive, live among his friends and love the person he loves as if there’s no tomorrow, but he simply couldn’t get both. Eren couldn’t win in any case. He wouldn’t be happy knowing that his and other shifters’ lives will end within several years. He wouldn’t be happy living in this world, because the society would treat him either as a hero or villain, and his life would again be full of regrets and burden. He wouldn’t be happy living with Mikasa, because he wants to spend as much time with her as possible and he would be unhappy knowing that she will be left behind.
What Eren actually needed wasn’t his “freedom”, but simply a realization that he could be happy if he lived in the moment, but, again, Eren’s destiny was always death that he both chose and was destined to face.
Armin thanked Eren not because he thought that his decisions were right, but because of the attempt he made to free his people. The attempt wasn’t good or morally right, but at the end, Eren’s personal sacrifices and the sacrifices of other people led them to the moment when Eldians became normal people.
Eren always portrayed negative concepts such as revenge and recklessness unlike Armin and Mikasa who were symbols of hope and pride. He wasn’t the hero of his own story and his actions were never meant to be viewed as right and morally correct ones. On the contrary, Eren was so wrong, but despite of what kind of person he was, Eren beautifully loved and was loved back no matter what the destiny has prepared for him.
Mikasa.
Mikasa’s destiny was tragic as the life of the person she loved. She couldn’t win either, because she also couldn’t escape Eren decision and fate. Eren was destined to die and even how hard she tried to brush up those thoughts off, from time to time, from situation to situation…Eren was on the verge of death and even if she tried to save him again and again…At the very end, Eren died from her own hands. But…nevertheless, it made Ymir, who was “living” in the agony of “love” for 2000 years, smile and feel free.
She also wished they could have more time and that the circumstances were softer on them. Mikasa has never demanded Eren to love her back nor she herself didn’t try to prove him something. What she ever wished for was to stay by his side and nothing more or less.
But that doesn’t mean that she was okay with what he did. No, she opposed him and simply accepted that Eren is also a cruel and reckless person. She knew that, but still continued to love him with all his flaws and shortcomings.
Their love wasn’t perfect, but it made both of them more human. Love showed that even how stoic and cold Mikasa might appear, deep inside…she was always a caring and soft person. Love became Mikasa’s motivation and the main source of her strength. Just because she continued to love and fight, Mikasa could save the humanity from the dark future awaited.
She already has lost Eren once back in Trost. Yes, she was heartbroken, but she continued to stand for herself and fight. As long as she is alive, the memory of Eren that was her most beloved and dear won’t die and will continue to exist even if the rest of the world will view him as a hero and villain.
She had to give up on the person she loved, but that doesn’t mean that Mikasa gave up on herself. She will continue to live, because no matter how cruel the world was on her, there always was the beauty and reason to live with or without Eren.
The situation with Paradis.
This one is very debatable and interesting, because it’s very ambiguous. There are two sides to this stance.
From one side, it showed how much influence Eren had over people on the island and I find it realistic that it didn’t disappear. Yeagerists, no matter how ridiculous and wrong they were, they could take over the military and the island.
But from the other side, I can’t say they were totally wrong by supporting Yeager bothers, because in the end…both Zeke and Eren’s sacrifices brought something new to this world.
I don’t think that the debate over who was wrong or right will end, because Isayama himself left it open as possible and I think that it was the right decision, because the political issues can continue for decades and centuries, and as Armin said just because titans perished doesn’t necessarily secure them a war-free life for the rest of their lives. Of course, it gave them a lot of opportunities to grow and develop, but if they continue to move forward and fight, maybe…someday Paradis will actually reach the peace everyone dreamed about.
I think we all can agree that even if the ending wasn’t what everyone desired, Attack on Titan is the story that introduced so many amazing openings, endings and OSTs. I have met a lot of great people and I am very grateful for that.
Attack on Titan taught us that living in cruel and beautiful world, where people need to fight to survive and save their loved ones, means that they constantly need to make choices and sacrifices to change the world for better, but they also need to bear the responsibilities for their actions no matter what kind of consequences the actions can bring. No matter what choice they make, they need to choose the one that they will regret the least.
one of my favorite things about human physiology is the way our eyes change when we look at someone we love. our pupils dilate automatically like they do when it’s dark outside and they’re trying to let more light in. except now it’s the light of your favorite person. the edges of our eyes soften a little and they sometimes even get watery which we also can’t control. tears of joy. we tend to raise our eyebrows as if we’re trying to make our eyes bigger. trying to get a better vision and seeing all the details. we tend to blink less than usual just to make the moment last a bit longer. even if it’s just a second. or when you smile at someone with your entire face involved and your eyes just crinkle and create a sparkle in them. and it all happens so effortlessly and universally.
What are EMA’s best and worst qualities? How has it reflected on them as characters throughout the final arc?
I’ve been wondering about this on my own but I was hoping to hear your thoughts about it 😅
Before answering, I would like to say that I don’t like the concept of the best and worst qualities, because every human can have them in different proportions (even tho for some it might be 1%), so I made it like I perceive their qualities depending on how they act in different situations and their personal upbringings.
Mikasa
Flaws
I would like to start from her flaws. Mikasa was a pretty much a sheltered child since her family was living far away from city and she herself is an introverted person. As an introvert myself, I would say that Mikasa is often mistaken for a cold and distant person, because she is not as expressive and pro-active as other people in the story.
Since Mikasa lived for 9 years apart from other people besides her parents, Mikasa was quite cautious with others and was short when it came to words. It might looked rude, because Mikasa sometimes was way too straightforward with words (and still is) and that’s why her responses were abrupt and short.
For example, when Jean complimented her hair, she simply said “Thank you” and moved on. I would say, in some cases, that was her personal flaw, because she used to ignore other people who genuinely wanted to become close to her.
Or another example is how she disliked Levi, but then warmed up to him to the point that she fights alongside him.
However, of course, she opened up and became more expressive and warm with other people as well.
When it comes to situations, Mikasa is an observer. She is self-aware and not only straightforward with her words, but actions as well. Mikasa is a perfect soldier not only because she is physically strong, but also because she acts right how the situation asks her to. If she sees a person in danger, she won’t think twice before saving him/her.
But here comes her another flaw, Mikasa sometimes can get lost when the situation gets really severe and I would say that she is not good at multitasking. As I said, Mikasa is an observer and she acts depending on the situation around her. But her actions need a straightforward direction and that’s often mistaken for obeying orders. No, Mikasa still acts on her own, but she needs a clear direction of her actions.
Here, when she was alone and there was quite a number of things to deal with, Mikasa felt lost.
Another instance is ch.112, when she couldn’t defend Armin, because she was confused with what exactly she has to do, stop Eren or stop Armin.
But as any other person, Mikasa also could partly overcome her flaw of being a passive supporter when she herself went to Eren. In the beginning of ch.138, Mikasa was looked quite confused and her facial gave me “What I should do now?” vibe. After receiving the dream/vision/AU, Mikasa finally acted purely on what she felt she has to do.
Strengths
I believe that Mikasa’s best quality is not her loyalty, but her maturity that not everyone in this story has. People often think that Mikasa defended Eren in ch.108 because she is very loyal and delusional, but I believe it is because Mikasa is mature enough to accept what Eren did. Accepting something doesn’t mean agreeing. Mikasa still openly disagreed with Yeagerists and refused to follow the “cult” that Floch created for Eren.
She is not angry or openly hates him for that, because Mikasa knows that he cares about them and his actions have a reason that she yet doesn’t know about. Mikasa doesn’t fall into judgement that easily anymore (e.g. Levi). She grew up and now she looks at the circumstances of person’s actions or accepts whatever situation they are in. Mikasa accepts changes in person has (even if in a bad direction like Eren).
Her pride, the quality that she represents, is also a sign of maturity. Mikasa is not scared or somehow ashamed to know that she is strong, confident and valuable as a soldier. She accepts herself and never let others use her. Mikasa knows her worth and role in this world.
In conclusion for Mikasa, I would say her main flaws are the need for clear and occasional stoicism, but her strengths are being mature (in all aspects of psychological maturity) and her pride.
I will continue my answer in a separate post, because I can’t fit anymore pictures😭😂
Armin
Flaws
Same with Mikasa, I will start from Armin’s flaw. As we know, he and Eren met when Armin was beaten up by some bullies.
Later, when Mikasa joined their group, she and Eren still defended him.
Armin was always insecure about his physical strength, because, to be honest, both Eren and Mikasa entered top 10 best cadets during their graduation year (Mikasa was the first and Eren fifth), while Armin was out of the list. During their training year he pushed himself a lot to get stronger, but still didn’t succeed, because his intelligence was his strongest point.
Armin is extremely attentive to details and I would say he is a pure analyzer. His intelligence saved them many times like when they could identify who is the Female Titan or when Armin found out that Eren is one their side.
After some time he could finally accept that his intelligence is his main strength and everything was okay until they had to choose between Erwin and him. Levi chose to let Armin be revived, but people like Floch has started to question if it was the right choice.
This was the moment when Armin has started to get even more insecure and less confident, because he had even more weight on his shoulders than ever (being chosen over Erwin and having Colossal Titan). Though, it didn’t reduce his intelligence, but he has started to doubt himself even more.
Armin is a very responsible person and wants to fulfill the expectations people have. But the problem is that Armin is scared to not be able to do his best. He wasn’t happy to become SC’s new commander. On contrary, he was terrified, because it gave him even more reasons to push himself and become even bigger than he is.
However, like Mikasa, he also overcame his flaw by stopping rumbling via talk no jutsu that many people believed won’t work.
Another flaw Armin has is his sometimes idealistic thinking. He has always had high standards for himself and it includes moral standards too. The first time when he actually questioned “Am I good person?” was when he killed a woman in ch.58.
Of course, Levi comforted him by saying that the blood on his hands saved other people’s hopes, lives, but Armin to this day was sick of this idea, because, unlike Eren, Armin is a pacifist and he wants to avoid conflict at all cost. He doesn’t want to kill or see corpses around.
Armin was terrified to see innocent children and families lying around when he attacked Liberio.
So what does all of this mean? Armin’s flaw is the fact that he has high expectations (both moral standards and responsibilities). That’s why he doesn’t believe that he is enough to be considered SC’s commander or just a good person.
But after fully defeating Eren and returning home, I believe Armin will finally understand that he is good enough to be simply a human and commander.
Strengths
Moving to Armin’s strengths. The first thing I want to point out, besides being intelligent and responsible, he is also psychologically mature like Mikasa.
Both Mikasa and Armin were the only ones who still believed in Eren during the talk in ch.108. However, if in Mikasa’s case she simply accepts the person just because he is a human, Armin looks more into the reasons why he is acting like that. Again, if Mikasa decides to do something out of her feelings and beliefs, Armin is a rational thinker.
He pointed out how Eren used the coordinate back in ch.50 by punching Dina and how it might be related to Eren’s plan. Yes, he wanted to negotiate out the problem with Eren and failed, but he still admitted how angry he was when Eren insulted Mikasa. He didn’t blame Mikasa for not defending him at that moment or totally turned his back on Eren. Armin still accepted the situation and even identified that Eren indeed lied to both of them even though he didn’t know the reason like Mikasa. 
Other than this, Armin’s strength is his hopefulness and this is what saved them from rumbling. Even when the world around them was scary and dangerous, he still found some small joys in life that many people overlook (reading books on a rainy day, feeding a squirrel in forest, eating chicken with his friends).
Armin, with all his rationality, could be like Zeke, but unlike him, Armin doesn’t see life as something necessarily related to science or natural processes. Life is still life without giving it a grand purpose and Armin’s way of thinking is truly beautiful.
In conclusion for Armin, hisbiggest flaws are taking way too much responsibility and believing that he is not enough, while his strengths are being psychologically mature and being able to see the beauty around.
Eren
Flaws
So the last one is Eren and as with Mikasa and Armin, I will start with his flaws, because Eren is very very flawed. But if I could be short, I would say that his biggest flaw is being a maximalist, because it perfectly ties with his other flaws such as recklessness, falling into judgment very easily and stubbornness.
When Eren was young, he was pretty much a troublemaker child, who would fight bullies or people on the streets when they say something that doesn’t fit his ideas (e.g., here, when a man was trash talking about SC or when Carla was lecturing about joining SC).
At first, it looked like Eren was simply a loud straightforward child, but when Carla died and Eren found his ultimate goal of exterminating all titans, his maximalism grew with him. Even the whole idea of killing every titan sounds way too extreme, isn’t it?
Eren grew up, joined military training and became even closer to finally reach his goal, slicing titans left and right. He didn’t change a bit and was still fighting anyone who said that his goal was obnoxious (e.g. Jean). Later, his titan powers were discovered and, again, Eren became even closer to his goal, because he is now strong to fight mindless titans. But the problem is…the stronger Eren became, the more maximalist he became.
When I say maximalist I don’t only mean Eren’s views, but also his behavior and relationship with others as well. His relationship with Mikasa is a perfect example of how Eren can go from one extreme to another. He always told her to stop protecting him as if he can do it by himself at that time.
The best example is how he treated her in ch.112 and how he treated her in ch.138 even though the purpose of these two were the same, “Move on, Mikasa”.
Eren doesn’t accept compromises. He was never quite right and he views world as plain black or white even though he told Reiner they are the same. Yes, he knows that people are different and he accepts the diversity, but the circumstances and his personal beliefs don’t make it stay like this, because otherwise it means that their race will be vanished.
His maximalism doesn’t let him live in present. He either lives in future or past. Eren didn’t enjoy happy moments with Mikasa and others when they were touring Marley. Eren couldn’t live peacefully enough with Mikasa in the vision/au/dreams, because his idea that he has abandoned his friends and he isn’t doing what he thinks he has to do didn’t leave him.
Eren’s maximalism pushes him to crave even more freedom. When he was a child, freedom for him meant seeing the ocean, frozen land…etc. But was he happy when they reached the ocean? No. Why? Because the closer Eren gets to his goal, the greedier and maximalist he becomes.
Eren wasn’t happy that there’re another obstacle in front of him, the humanity outside. If his past obstacles were not being able to join SC (9 y/o Eren), not being strong enough to join SC (12-15 y/o Eren), not being strong enough to kill titans (15 y/o Eren) and not being able to use titan powers good enough (15 y/o Eren), for 16-19 y/o Eren it was how the outside world hates them to the point that they want them all dead.
Even if 19 y/o Eren reached his goal, saving Eldians from other nations, it doesn’t mean that Eren would be finally happy about his life and enjoy his freedom. Eren would still find a reason to feed his maximalism.
But does it mean that Eren is always on the wrong side? No, he is both wrong and right. Eren is both cruel and kind. He is a human definition of contrast.
It is easy to influence Eren’s view, but does it change it? No, Eren will still stay loyal to his maximalist views. He understood that warriors did what they did because of influence from outside, but does he think that he should fully overlook their actions? No, he simply accepts it and sticks to his opinion anyway.
Eren’s maximalism is the main reason why he is so suicidal, reckless and abrupt. Eren himself is the reason why people think that he wouldn’t act in a certain way in some situations and why they claim that Aaron Yogurt is OOC Eren. Eren can go from one extreme (soft and male wife Aaron) to another (flex 24/7 manbun Eren).
His maximalism will stop only when Eren understands that what he has is just right for him and I hope he will in ch.139.
Strengths
Okay, Eren is walking contrasts and contradictions, so here his good qualities.
One quality that follows Eren since the beginning is his strong determination. If Eren wants something, he will achieve it even if it costs him hours of training or manipulating others. I would say that his determination is tricky, because combined with his maximalism, it can be bad, but on its own, his determination is a noteworthy personal quality.
One example of his determination is when he tried to pass the aptitude exercise. He failed several times and yet continued to try again and again until he finally got it right.
Eren’s determination is what keeps him going and it is the main fuel of his maximalism, because Eren never gives up. Even if he does, Eren still continues to fight, because as he says “If we win, we live. If we lose, we die. Fight. Fight. Fight”.
One thing about Eren that quite amazes me is his attention to details and fast learning. What I mean is that he could learn Annie’s technique by seeing it once and being able to recognize it during the fight with Female Titan.
On the other hand, Eren is good at using those small details like he did in ch.112. If we think about it, Mikasa’s headaches aren’t something completely unusual, because any other human being experienced headaches at least once in the life time. But he twisted Zeke’s words and used that small detail to manipulate Mikasa’s feelings. I am not saying that it is a good thing, because there’re more positive examples of Eren utilizing this trait.
The example I am talking about is how he linked the fact that Dina was a royal blood to the Smiling Titan and could understand that the coordinate can be activated by touching a royal blood person.
The quality that Mikasa recognizes in Eren is his kindness. Yes, he is still a very cruel person, but Eren does have a heart. He helped a girl that he didn’t even know to be free and saved Ramzi, a boy that he would eventually kill during the rumbling.
Despite of his kindness, Eren is very selfless (even though it becomes a flaw because of his maximalism). He didn’t hesitate to save Armin from a titan and let himself to be eaten.
Now, he literally made himself to become humanity’s ultimate sacrifice by using his remaining time to free his people. It is very selfless and noble in some way, because Eren always was a morally grey character and he probably won’t become pure white after the story ends. He is still a human with bad and good sides.
In conclusion, I would say that Eren has many good characteristics such as kindness, attention to details and selflessness, but his maximalist tendencies overpower them.
Note: I can’t express enough how grateful I am for your question. It truly made me go out of my comfort zone! I hope it will help someone to at least partly understand EMA’s personalities even though I couldn’t add even more examples from manga because of tumblr’s pic limit😤 (I like putting manga panels as clear evidence). Thank you again!
(يوم ولد ويوم يموت ويوم يبعث حيا) قال سفيان بن عيينة: أوحش ما يكون الإنسان في هذه الأحوال: يوم ولد ، فيخرج مما كان فيه، ويوم يموت فيرى قوما لم يكن عاينهم، ويوم يبعث فيرى نفسه في محشر لم ير مثله، فخص يحيى بالسلامة في هذه المواطن التي الإنسان فيها في غاية الضعف والحاجة وقلة الحيلة والفقر إلى الله تعالى عظيم الحول.
• وذكر الطبري عن الحسن أن عيسى ويحيى التقيا - وهما ابنا الخالة - فقال يحيى لعيسى: ادع الله لي فأنت خير مني ؛ فقال له عيسى: بل أنت ادع الله لي فأنت خير مني ؛ سلم الله عليك وأنا سلمت على نفسي.”
سمع النّبي ﷺ رجلًا يدعو ويقول: “اللهمّ إني أسألك بأنّي أشهد أنّك أنت الله لا إله إلا أنت الواحد الأحد الفرد الصّمد الّذي لم يلد ولم يولد ولم يكن له كفوًا أحد أن -ثم طلب حاجته-“
فقال ﷺ: "لقد سأل الله باسمه الذي إذا سُئل به أعطى، وإذا دُعي به أجاب.”
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